Solar Decahtlon: Aura, the solution offered by team hísCali

Aura is a project headed up by a team of students and professors from the School of Architecture at the Universidad de Sevilla working together with the Universidad de Santiago de Calí. It is one of the sixteen projects selected to take part in Solar Decathlon, the most important international architecture and sustainability competition. The edition in which they are taking part, to be held in December 2015, is the first to take place in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Solar Decathlon Latin America and Caribbean 2015 is not only innovative as regards its location, but also introduces a series of changes compared to previous years.

Firstly, this edition includes a social component that has not existed up until now. The idea of constructing high-cost prototypes that are only accessible to a minority of the population has been replaced and instead, the teams are encouraged to demonstrate that sustainability is within everyone’s reach. Other differences are established as regards urban density that assumes greater importance than in previous editions, along with the rational use of environmental resources and regional relevance. Lastly, the most important change is reflected in the exposure that the winning prototypes will enjoy following the competition. While in previous editions, the housing has been taken down year following project assessment, this year it will have the chance to take part in an urban laboratory on the basis of which each of the three winning teams will be able to construct 1,000 social houses. This will create the first green district in Latin America and the Caribbean, consolidating Cali as the region’s first sustainable city.